More User Reviews:

Presentation: It was poured from a brown 12oz bottle into a pint glass.

Appearance: It has a beautiful deep amber colored body with very good clarity and a tall, thick foamy head. The head is beige in color and it hangs on well making some cool lace rings on the glass.

Smell: There is a sweet candy like malty aroma that fills the nose. Hop notes are very mellow and barley detected.

Taste/Palate: Just like the aroma the flavors character is full of rich sweet caramel, sweet doughy and bready malty deliciousness. The hops are, like the aroma, mellow compared to the maltiness and offers just some mild bitterness towards the finish. The body has a good solid medium feel with a smooth almost creamy texture.

pours a cleveland brown transparent orange with nice, thick flapjack batter densifying on the top. very nice and consistent over the years. lacing nicely like something that's expensive. if it's NOT looking that way, you might want to practice pouring again...

slight toasty caramel/malts in the nose. good.

what makes this come through so incredibly flavorful is the near perfect mouthfeel of sudsy creaminess and un-overbearing carbonation. not flat in the least. not over-spritzy at all....which leads to a nice experience of a toasty sort-of english pale ale. not sure why, but it has that freshness i find in good pales (the not-so-hopped kind). actually reminds me of Fuller ESB for some odd reason as well. this isn't just another quickflash Saranac. whether by near-divine design or accident, it's a great session brew for ALL seasons. a solid go-to like other basic unassuming brews (sam adam's boston ale, sierra nevada pale...). this is a really perfect-for-what-it-is-and-maybe-beyond sort of brew. enjoy!

I had this on tap at a restaurant in utica, ny. It was served in a saranac pint glass

a: two finger head that dissipated to one fairly quickly. the one stuck around however, and left nice lacing on the glass. nice amber color, reds trying to peek through, not as dark as a brown and not as red as a... red. so amber.

s: the smell took me off-guard. notes of brown bread, fruit. Hard to describe but it smelled... sweet. Floral i guess?

t: Taste was predominantly toasted malt, hints of breadiness, maybe a slight fruity note. Initially pretty sweet, but mellowed out as it went down. To me, it tasted an awful lot like it was trying to be a brown ale, but not doing so well at it. Finish was a little more hoppy than initially but not a whole lot of hops going on.

m: fan-tastic. Smooth, a little thick, not too much carbonation but enough to make it enjoyable. I'm not sure why but it was special to me. mouthfeel is by far the highlight of this beer, to me at least.

d: idv'e had another couple of 'em, but i was driving. definitely drinkable. not my favorite but if it was available, i would take it over a macro any day.

notes: My pint cost me $1.75. It went well with my happy hour pierogies.... I'll drink this again, it had something special... not great, but special. My first drink at a bar! though definitely not my first drink :-)

Clear, pumpkin orange amber with a huge, foamy light tan shaving creamy head that leaves spotty lace on the glass. Caramel malt and herbal hop notes in the aroma. Toffee and caramel malty flavors with an earthy, somewhat steely hop flavor that dries out in the finish. Medium bodied with crisp carbonation that perfectly balances. Another decent but unimpressive brew from MBC. It would be cool if they made an extreme, tasty beer but that is not who they are. They make high quality everyday brew and are consistently slighty above average.

Pours clear reddish amber in color with a small (1/4 inch) creamy off white to beige colored head that dissipates quickly; smells of sweet malt, faint caramel and grains, and maybe some citrus. This is a dull nose that really doesn't give off anything.

Tastes of sweet malt which is on the slightly roasted side, piney hops, faint caramel, crisp apple or grapefruit, grains, yeast and again some hops in the crisp clean finish. The hoppy finish leans towards the bitter side, but still manages to remain crisp. Very light to medium carbonation that has a crisp and light feel to the beer, in fact it's so light that it's almost watery, with a medium mouth feel and medium body that goes down easy.

It's very drinkable with an overall roasted malt and grain taste, but it's just not exciting at all and very average in every way. It's a good beer in the Saranac seasonal 12 pack, but I would not buy a 6 pack of this beer. There was no WOW factor with this beer, nothing to make it stand out from any other beer.

Pours dark amber/mahogany with a thin head that becomes a wide, thin patch. Thin lacing sticks.

The smell is of caramel, light toast, some fruitiness (pear/apple).

The taste is of heavy caramel. Starts sweet, becomes steely as it progresses. Finishes with a steely dryness, with some pear/apple mixed in. Claims, on label, to be a hoppy amber. Malt is overly caramelish, though...yet somewhat thin at same time. An odd brew. Some floral/herbal notes do come through, but steely caramel dominates. Slight alcohol shows.